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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Nashville
Nashville fried chicken coated with a cayenne pepper paste and hot frying fat, served on a slice of white bread with pickles. The recipe is credited to the Prince family in the 1930s.
Traditional dish from Nashville, Tennessee
Also known as: hot chicken, Nashville-style hot chicken
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Nashville hot chicken — Nashville, the United States
Hot chicken is Nashville’s fried chicken, truly spicy. After frying, the chicken is brushed with a paste of cayenne pepper and other spices mixed into the hot frying fat, which gives the crust a red, glossy finish. It’s served on a slice of white bread, which soaks up the spicy oil, with pickle slices on top. Restaurants offer several heat levels, from mild to extreme.
The origin is told by the family who created it. In the 1930s, Thornton Prince, known for not being a faithful companion, was supposedly given an overly peppered chicken by an offended girlfriend as punishment. He liked it, perfected the recipe with his brothers, and began selling it. In 1945 the family opened a restaurant dedicated to the dish, later run by his great-niece André Prince Jeffries. For decades, hot chicken was food of the Black neighborhoods in a segregated city before spreading to the rest of Nashville.
In 2007, then-mayor Bill Purcell created the Music City Hot Chicken Festival, held every year in the east side of the city. From then on the dish began appearing on many menus in Nashville and other cities, always under the name Nashville.
Hot chicken is served in bone-in pieces or strips at simple diners, with Southern sides like coleslaw, French fries, and mac and cheese. First-timers usually start with the milder heat levels.
Nashville , Tennessee
Recipe from the Prince family of Nashville since the 1930s; the dish is named after the city.
Chicken pieces, seasoned wheat flour, cayenne pepper and other spices, frying fat, sliced white sandwich bread, pickles.
Hot, on a slice of white bread, with pickles; eaten with the hands. Heat level is chosen when ordering.
Lunch, dinner, or late night, year-round.
Your questions
It can be. Restaurants offer several heat levels, from mild to extreme, and first-timers usually begin with the milder options.
The slice of bread absorbs the spicy oil from the coating and is part of the traditional way of serving, with pickles on top.
The recipe is attributed to Thornton Prince and his family in the 1930s. The family opened a restaurant dedicated to the dish in 1945.
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